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J ace spent most of Saturday in bed.

Tigger kept him company. Jace wasn’t sure who’d first let the tomcat in, but within a week he had the run of the place.

He’d adopted Jace, wisely zeroing in on the alpha of the small den.

Jace had christened him Tigger, just to yank Sam’s chain, because Tigger was basically a mini-Sam—an orange tiger-in-miniature.

Jace did sleep for a couple of hours. When he woke up, Zuri brought him some beef broth. They talked a little, and then Zuri left to run some errands. With the coast clear, Tigger jumped on Jace’s bed and settled against his leg. A short while later he was purring.

Touched, Jace stroked the cat’s fur. Tigger didn’t usually share anyone’s bed, preferring a perch on the living room couch where he could survey both the kitchen and the front door. He was clearly offering support to an injured den mate.

The afternoon passed slowly. Jace took another short nap. When he awoke, his head was clear for the first time in twenty-four hours. He stared at the ceiling, stroking Tigger and thinking.

Frigging woman. Because he couldn’t get the tough little human out of his mind.

He knew damn well she needed help. It couldn’t be easy, raising a kid who wasn’t much younger than her.

Jace knew something about that himself. Yeah, Takira had been older than him, not younger, but only by two years.

During the Darktime, the alpha—Adric’s uncle Leron—had separated families as punishment or simply to keep them from conspiring against him.

Jace’s own mom had been sent on a military mission to South America that had kept her away for a year.

While she was gone, his peace-loving, half Native American dad had been killed in a bloody spate of fighting.

By the time Jace was fifteen, he and Takira had been on their own save for the small pack they’d formed with Adric, Marjani, and some of the other young members of their clan. At fifteen, Jace was already bigger and stronger than his sister, so he’d been her protector as much as she was his.

And then Takira had fallen for Silver, a half-fae, half-human who turned out to be Prince Langdon’s illegitimate son.

Langdon had kept Silver a secret—the night fae frowned on mating with anyone but another pureblood—but somehow Tyrus, his only other living son, had found out.

Maybe even from Adric’s bastard of an uncle.

Remembering, Jace’s fingers tightened in Tigger’s fur. The cat hissed and Jace released him. Tigger shot him an outraged glare and then stalked off, stiff-legged, to the foot of the mattress before lying down again.

The Darktime . It had been like a virus attacking the clan, a killing fever that swept through the ranks, sucking in even good men and women until no one knew who to trust. Darkness and hatred had ruled.

But the day Jace had heard that Takira had been raped and murdered had been the day he’d truly understood darkness. A familiar acridness coated the back of his tongue. If only he’d known that Tyrus had targeted Takira and her small family…

Jace had been with Adric, planning a strike against Leron Savonett.

That small, well-planned attack had turned the tide, eventually leading to the battle that finally took down the vicious alpha.

Jace had rushed to Takira’s den with the news that she no longer had to hide Merry.

But they were gone. The next he’d heard, Takira was dead, and Silver had taken his daughter and gone into hiding.

He dragged a hand over his face. What the hell made him think he could help Evie and Kyler? Better he stayed away. If Tyrus was stalking Jace, he was a danger to them.

He threw off the sheet, earning another irritated hiss from Tigger, but Jace was going to go insane if he spent any more time staring at the ceiling.

He limped into the living room and sprawled on the couch. One by one his den mates woke up from their naps and joined him, taking seats on the chairs or the large pillows strewn on the floor.

When Adric returned it was after six o’clock, and the four of them were eating Chinese take-out—soup for Jace—and watching the Orioles.

When Adric entered, everyone except Jace rose to their feet.

They hugged and nuzzled each other—their animals needing the touch—and then Adric took Sam’s seat on the couch next to Jace.

Sam didn’t even blink. Adric was the alpha, but more, he’d earned their loyalty a hundred times over. The man would die for them, and nearly had.

Adric looked Jace over with a professional eye. He wasn’t a healer, but like all of them, he’d done his share of field medic work. “Should you be out of bed?”

Jace growled. “Don’t start.”

“It’s your funeral,” he said, helping himself to a plate of ginger garlic chicken. He watched the last two innings of the baseball game with the rest of them, and then jerked his chin at the other men. “I need to talk to Jace and Zuri.”

The room cleared immediately. Adric spun a chair around so its back was facing Jace, and sat down, arms draped over the back, while Zuri took a seat on the opposite end of the couch.

Adric scrutinized Jace. “You sure you’re all right?”

His nape tightened. “Why?” He set his empty soup bowl on the coffee table. “What is it?”

“I’ve been thinking. That night fae was waiting for you, right?”

“Far as I could tell.”

“So, d’you think it was Lord Prick?”

“I didn’t see him,” Jace said, “but who else could it be? The man was right outside Evie and Kyler’s door.

We could feel him out there, trying to sense where I was.

I protected the three of us the best I could, and then I passed out.

Somehow she held him off. Hell, maybe thinking happy thoughts worked. ”

“Could be the fae in her. If I had to choose, I’d say she was sun fae, and if there’s one thing the sun fae are good at, it’s being happy.”

Jace nodded slowly. Sun fae were rich, sexy, hedonistic—the fae world’s version of a Hollywood elite. Evie might not have the wealth, but she had a sun fae’s magnetism. Hell, even with a knife wound to the gut, he’d wanted to fuck her.

“But if it was his royal prickness,” Adric continued, “then why? He targeted you for a reason.”

“Merry,” Jace said, tightlipped. “He can’t get at her because she’s too well protected.

That ward of her grandfather’s keeps the night fae away from her, and Rock Run has adopted her into their clan.

You’d have to be touched in the head to fuck with Rui do Mar.

” The river fada who was Merry’s adopted father was also Rock Run’s most feared assassin.

“No.” Jace shook his head. “The only way the night fae can strike at her is through me.”

“Merry, yeah—but why you? Sure, you’re her uncle, but it’s Silver’s line he’s worried about. And if he really wanted to hurt Merry, he’d go after Rui and Valeria.”

“True.” Jace rubbed his forehead. “But then why?”

Adric was out of his chair and pacing. He could never sit still for long.

“Think about it, Jace. You’re the key to my whole strategy for getting the clan back on its feet.

You’re the one who knows the quartz technology inside out.

Yeah, we’ve got others who can do some of what you do, but no one has a grasp of all the pieces like you do.

If you die, the project could be set back years—and who knows what would happen in the meantime? ”

“Hell.” Jace met Adric’s eyes. “You think someone’s trying to sabotage the project.”

“I do.”

Zuri’s brow creased. “But why would the night fae care?”

Adric and Jace spoke as one. “Because he’s not working alone.”